Liz Wolf

Thank you so much for your post, Jay! It's great to have so many photos!  I really like the look of the bamboo. I was wondering about the growing of your bamboo patch:do you have trouble containing it? How quickly does it spread? Thank you!

Thank you! I will post more as we progress with our build.

Hello Folks:
Looking for people interested in building with hempcrete in Michigan. We are in the planning stages for an addition onto our stick house using caste in place hempcrete. Curious if there are any other builds going on in Michigan. We want to use locally grown and processed Hurd if possible. Any suggestions about other forums/websites where I might connect with hemp build folks would be greatly appreciated! Happy Spring!

Hello All, Wondering if anyone here knows of an engineer licensed in Michigan who is sympathetic to alternative building methods. We would like to put an addition on our house made with hempcrete. Our building inspector says he needs an engineer to document the R-value. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Hello All,
Wondering if there is a FSBO section on Permies that I have missed. We are looking for land with or without a dwelling in the Traverse City, Michigan area.  
Thanks for reading!
Liz

To All the Dear Folks that Advised:
I am simply overwhelmed with all your thoughtful suggestions! Thank you so much!

I am going to do some more research regarding the history of the orchard. So far, no information from the seller. I don't know much if anything about cherry trees, I assumed they were a short lived, prodigious hybrid.

Thank you for the information on the machinery! I like the idea of shredding some of the trees, turning some into hugels, and the backhoe excavator. The backhoe was an option that we are most drawn to as we could use it to dig our foundation and septic. Loved the idea of turning some of the trees into fenceposts. Brilliant!

Definitely want to wait and watch a year. Very curious to see if there are any wet areas in the spring.

I have fallen in love with this piece of property. If we do end up purchasing it, I will take pictures and record the progress.

Thanks again! So glad to have found this!

Thanks so much Jay for responding so quickly.
1. We are in Northern Michigan, what was once wonderful Cherry country, but now the seasons are so screwy that...well I'm sure you know the fate of most of the fruit farmers here.
2. I believe that the trees died due to neglect and also it is very old orchard.
3. Yes, full size, maybe 10-12 feet?
4. In terms of time, ideally we would rather solve this more quickly - but wondering if 10 acres a year is still too monumental a task for the likes of us!

Thanks again!

Hello All:
Hoping that I might gather some ideas on the best way to cut down and clear roughly 35-40 acres of dead cherry orchard. My husband and I are considering buying a piece of property that we would love to farm, but we don't know how much time/money we should set aside for turning most of the property that is now dead orchard into tillable or livestock land. We would rather not slash and burn, but what is feasible? Am I crazy to think of burying the stumps after they are pulled and turning them into hugels? I'm imagining a pile that would take up several acres and be a hundred feet high.  

Wish we were younger, we are just young enough to think we can still homestead, but really old enough to know better!

Any ideas and comments would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!!